In modern printing environments, different functional parts of the printing process are commonly divided amongst different subsystems. For example, print jobs can be stored or produced by a job source. A job can be submitted to a digital front end (DFE) that processes the job and then passes it to a marking engine where it is actually printed. One of the processing functions performed by the DFE is known as raster image processing (RIP) in which a document description is transformed into an image that can be printed by a marking engine. An image is a two dimensional pattern of pixels that the marking engine can directly print whereas the document description can contain text and graphics.
A page description language (PDL) can be used to describe a document. A PDL can tell a DFE about the placement and appearance of text and images on a page. The appearance of a printable element, such as text, can include color, font, size, and other factors. A job, therefore, is often presented to the DFE as a PDL file. PostScript™ is an example of an early PDL. A file, such as a file stored in a computer, containing PostScript is a PDL file. Variable Data Intelligent Postscript Printware (VIPP) is a more recent PDL. VIPP is a licensable language from Xerox that enables high performance output of variable-data PostScript documents. VIPP is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,270 and in United States Patent Application 20050044494.
Many DFEs, however, do not have VIPP functionality. As such, a PDL file containing VIPP can not be processed by every DFE. PDL files containing the PostScript™ SetPageDevice command have the same problem because all DFEs do not support SetPageDevice functionality.
A common occurrence is when none of the available DFEs have the required functionality for a particular job. A person then must choose between taking the job elsewhere, waiting for the right DFE to become available, giving up, or adapting the job for an available DFE. This occurrence can happen when a PDL file contains advanced capabilities such as VIPP or SetPageDevice. A need therefore exists for systems and methods that can adjust jobs, such as PDL files, for people without interfering with other people who want to print documents.